SCS has emerged as a viable means of managing chronic pain when kinetic (e.g., physical rehabilitation), pharmaceutical, and surgical therapies have not been effective. However, between 1974 and 1991, according to studies the clinical success of SCS has been highly variable, with a mean of 54.2% and a standard deviation of 20%, and subsequent studies have shown very little improvement. Efforts to improve the clinical efficacy of SCS have focused on the development of more spatially selective electrodes, while only minimal attention has been paid to the temporal patterning of SCS or the effects of SCS on the activity of neurons in the dorsal horn pain processing circuit. Although there have been advances in SCS, there is a continuing need for improved techniques and systems for optimizing SCS.